Media frames of collective memory: Remembering – a democratic right or a waste of time?

This master’s thesis addresses the challenges involved in the construction and regulation of a national collective memory, with a particular focus on the influential role that mass media hold in shaping society’s perceptions and discussions of their shared past. To this day, this is a rather unexplored field. Specifically, this study examines the media’s portrayal of a unique law: the Ley de memoria democrática enacted by the Spanish Senate in 2022. This legislation aims to regulate the memory of the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939) and the subsequent dictatorship (1939-1975) by illegalising the dictator’s ideology, Francoism, transferring the responsibility for exhuming mass graves to the State, and establishing a national DNA bank to help identify the remains of victims, among other restorative measures. Through a qualitative framing analysis of 56 articles published by five major newspapers in Spain- elDiario.es, El País, La Vanguardia, El Mundo, El Español,- this study investigates the media frames used in reporting on the law’s enactment by the Spanish Congress and Senate. The results reveal that Spanish media used competing frames, reflecting the polarised nature of Spanish politics concerning issues of memory. The historical divide from the Civil war persists in contemporary society, with a clear division between the right and left. The right associated with those who favoured Francoism and now oppose to the regulation of memory, while the is linked to the Republicans side and now advocates for remembrance. Today’s political groups and mass media continue to mirror this polarisation. In line with the revised theoretical framework, this study provides yet another practical case study illustrating the high degree of politicisation within Spanish media. These findings offer new insights into the complexities of regulating a nation’s collective memory, emphasizing how societal divisions can persist in the absence of a common understanding of how to deal with the memory of a tragic past.